


safe and sound

by illyrias



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 07:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illyrias/pseuds/illyrias
Summary: She knows that she and Lena are close, but dating? She forces out a laugh at how absurd the idea is, because of course it is – absurd, that is.Or the one where Kara doesn't understand why the whole school thinks that she and Lena are dating, until, oh.Oh.





	safe and sound

It takes Kara approximately a week to find out about the rumors circulating the school, and another to realize that said rumors maybe have  _some_ truth to them. Maybe. Just a little.

All things considered, she thinks it’s rather fast for her own standards, thank you very much.

* * *

In all fairness, it’s not really her fault she doesn’t hear about the rumors earlier. She tries her best not to take part in petty gossip, and there’s nothing – no particular incident of any sort as far as she can recall – that would cause the sudden speculation and scrutiny from the school body.

When Lucy asks her at the lunch table to settle the ongoing bet on whether she asked Lena out first or if it was the other way around, it is completely understandable that she chokes on her food in her attempt to voice her surprise. 

“What?!” She looks around the table, and the earnestness with which everyone is looking at her throws her off even further.

“C’mon Kara, I have faith in you. Please say you did the asking. I need my twenty bucks.”

“What?!” She repeats, her voice two pitches higher.

“Ha! It was Lena, wasn’t it? Pay up, Luce,” Winn immediately puts her hand forth, gesturing for Lucy to hand over the money.

The sound of her friend’s voice helps Kara snap out of her daze and her cheeks flush pink as she fully comprehends the topic of conversation.

“But we’re not- Lena and I, we’re not- we’re just _friends_ ,” The words nearly get tangled in her mouth at the speed she’s trying to explain the mistake, and she gives her friends a horrified look because what could _possibly_ cause them to think such a thing out of nowhere?

_Not_ that the idea of dating Lena is horrifying in the slightest. In fact, Kara thinks, dating Lena would be highly preferable to the misogynistic frat boys that seem to be everywhere.

But still, Lena is her best friend – has been her best friend since way back in elementary school when Kara was still Alex Danvers’ strange new sister and Lena was a tiny little thing, too smart and too sad for her age. Kara had found her curled up with a blanket in the furthest corner of the library while she was ‘exploring the school’, and the little girl with the dark hair and green eyes had promptly picked up her books and her blanket and walked off in the most regal manner Kara had ever seen a seven year old manage.

“Done so soon today? See you tomorrow, Lena,” The librarian had chuckled as the little girl – Lena – placed the books and the blanket in a box labelled with her name and returned it at the counter. Kara had watched from a distance and stared, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, at the mysterious girl who seemed to have a box of items reserved for her at the library, and had immediately decided that she _had_ to find out who she was.

And so, Kara Danvers, with her blonde curls flying and her glasses slipping off her nose, had ran out of the library and crashed into the dark-haired girl. The girl had turned around and had looked up at Kara – at least one head shorter, and a whole lot calmer than the eager blonde.

“Hello, my name is Kara,” The blonde had said, beaming brightly as she promptly stumbled her way into Lena Luthor’s life.

The pair had been inseparable throughout elementary school and maintained contact even when Lillian sent Lena off to some posh, expensive boarding school for the first two years of high school. But Lena has been back in National City High with her for a year now; her best friend has come back to National City – has come back to _Kara_.

She knows that she and Lena are close, but _dating_? She forces out a laugh at how absurd the idea is, because of course it is – absurd, that is.

“Lena’s my _best_ friend,” She declares, and looks around the table again to make sure that everyone there gets the message.

“Oh.” There is a moment of silence at the table, but it passes quickly enough when James brings up the previous week’s football game.

Alex looks at her with an expression she does not exactly know how to decipher, but as her older sister, too, gets distracted by the next topic of conversation, she shrugs it off and takes another bite of her sandwich.

* * *

She vows to stop thinking about the whole situation, and succeeds in putting it in the far corner of her mind as class starts. Art has always been one of her favorite subjects, and she has no problem immersing herself in bright colors and precise strokes.

But the problem is, since the situation had been brought up to her, she _cannot un-see it_ ; and as the day goes by, evidence of the rumors become clearer and clearer to her.

“Where’s Lena? Not accompanying you today?” Felicity comments as they walk to the next class together after art. Kara’s eyes widen, as she stutters out an explanation about how Lena's in another class.

“Bring Lena along,” Sara winks as she invites her to a party, and Kara is left speechless and open-mouthed at the clear insinuation.

Even Sam – who she’s spoken maybe about two sentences to in her life – turns to her as she waits outside the lab that Lena’s class is in. “Hey, your girl’s still inside. Might take a while. She’s finishing up, if you want to go in and wait.”

_Your girl,_ Sam called her. The implication makes Kara pause.

When Lena finally exits the lab ten minutes later, Kara instinctively reaches out to pull her into a hug in greeting.

“I hate Thursdays. I never get to see you at all,” She mutters into the crook of Lena’s shoulder. She feels Lena laugh and return the hug.

“Miss you too, darling,” She whispers, and Kara swears she can forget everything weird that happened and her life can carry on as per normal now that Lena’s with her.

* * *

Friday nights are Kara’s favorite because they mean Movie Night with Lena.

It’s Lena’s turn to choose the food this week, and Kara’s to choose the movie, which means the two of them are surrounded by green things and only one burger because Lena _doesn’t like good food._

(“Good food doesn’t take away ten years of your life, Kara.”

“Well, every time I eat kale, at least three years of my life disappear. So really, kale is the bad guy here, Lena.”)

Anastasia plays on the screen, and Lena curls herself into a ball with her arms wrapped around her knees, and tucks herself in the space right beside Kara, resting her head on the blonde’s shoulder.

“You okay?” Kara asks, putting an arm around Lena to pull her even closer.

Lena hums in assurance, and Kara sighs happily as the other girl starts to play with her hair.

A wave of contentment washes over her. She could do this forever, she thinks; watching princess movies with her best friend in their pajamas fills her with an indescribable happiness, even if Lena has weird taste in food.

They fall asleep on the sofa, curled up together under a blanket, until Eliza comes home and persuades their sleepy selves to move to Kara’s room.

* * *

Lena turns up at her doorstep on Sunday afternoon in a black dress and heels and Kara’s jaw nearly drops.

Her best friend looks absolutely _gorgeous_. Kara has always known Lena was beautiful, but she’s also used to seeing her in flannels and sweatshirts and jeans, not dresses and heels and makeup.

“Sorry about the whole getup,” Lena gestures to dress, “My parents are making me attend this gala dinner thing tonight and I didn’t want to cancel lunch. I’m all yours till four.”

“Lena! You’re- you’re- I mean, wow.” Kara manages to stutter once she snaps out of her daze.

The dark haired girl in front of her looks down and blushes, and Kara _swoons_.

* * *

Kara wears Lena’s sweatshirt around school on Monday – the one from her boarding school that has Luthor printed in block letters across the back.

Lena passes it to her in the morning after she makes a comment about forgetting her own sweater. She happily tugs it on, reveling in how it smells like Lena.

When she and Lena joins the group during lunch, Lucy lets out a noise of disbelief.

“Oh my god, are you really wearing Lena’s sweatshirt?”

“Yeah, she lent it to me this morning.”

“You two are so sickeningly sweet,” Lucy groans, “You wear a sweatshirt with Lena’s name all over your back for the world to see, and you wonder why people think you’re dating.”

“Well, Lena’s my best friend, so I’m going to wear her name on my back all I want.”

She almost blushes when she says that, but still manages to make her words come out stubborn all the same. She’s not stupid, she knows what Lucy is trying to say, but Lena’s sweatshirt is soft and comfortable and smells like Lena and she likes wearing it. And she likes that people know Lena’s _her_ best friend. So what if it’s usually couples who did that?

Lucy looks at her, and then at Lena, and then back at her, and groans again.

* * *

It is a well-known fact that Kara has the attention span of a puppy, especially when it comes to homework.

Lena, on the other hand, can sit in a library and study for hours without even looking up from her books at all.

Really, Kara’s been observing for the past fifteen minutes. Lena hasn’t looked up from her books at all, and that fact horrifies Kara just a little.

“Lee, I’m bored,” She complains.

“Give me ten minutes,” Lena still does not look up.

A minute later, she tries a different tactic. Grabbing one of Lena’s pens, she shifts her chair closer to the dark haired girl and starts doodling on her left hand. Lena still does not look up, but she does shift her hand to give Kara better doodling access, so that’s something.

When she’s done with her masterpiece of flowers up Lena’s forearm, she moves on to braiding Lena’s hair. The dark haired girl only laughs and sweeps her hair over her shoulder so Kara doesn’t have to reach over.

When Lena finally, _finally_ snaps her book shut and looks over at Kara, the blonde gives her a blinding grin.

“Okay, let’s go get you your potstickers now. Thank you for waiting for me,” Lena stands and picks up her bag and then casually, conveniently, presses her lips to Kara’s forehead.

Lena’s kissed her on the cheek and the forehead before, but this time Kara swears her heart stops for a second, and, oh.

_Oh._

* * *

She doesn’t really panic, not really.

She sends a few texts to Alex in block letters and with many, many exclamation points, but she doesn’t really panic. Maybe it’s because her friends have been talking about it for a week now, or maybe some small part of her always knew.

Lena’s her best friend, and Kara loves her to the ends of the world, and this all feels just a little bit inevitable. And sure, she’s nervous, but Lena was her best friend before she was her crush, and she knows they’ll be fine – she knows she wouldn’t lose Lena over this.

_CONGRATS ON FINALLY FIGURING IT OUT_ , Alex texts back.

And then immediately: _Are you okay though?? Do you want to talk about it?? Do you want me to come over??_

She calls Alex, and her sister picks up immediately.

“Hey. Are you alright?”

“So yeah, I like Lena. I mean I’m alright, but I just wanted to talk about it. You don’t have to come over, I just wanted to talk to someone.”

“Okay, how’re you feeling?”

“Surprisingly alright? I mean, it’s Lena. I’m a little confused about what to do now, but she’s my best friend right? I mean, I think I’ll be fine even if she didn’t like me back because she’s still my best friend. Do you think I should tell her? I don’t really know what to do now.”

Alex is quiet over the phone for a few seconds, before she speaks again, “I think you should tell her.”

“Do you think she likes me?” Kara asks quietly.

“Kara,” Alex laughs quietly, “There’s a reason the entire school already thinks you’re dating. But for what it’s worth, yes, I think she does.”

“Okay, thanks Alex. I’ll maybe go over to Lena’s now. Love you.”

“Love you. Tell me how it goes, okay?”

* * *

Lex lets her into the Luthor mansion – she’s glad Lena’s parents aren’t home – and she finds her way to Lena’s room as easily as if it were her own.

She finds Lena curled up under her blanket with her glasses on, reading a book, looking almost exactly like how Kara found her in the elementary school library all those years ago. Lena looks up when she knocks on the open door gently, and gives her a small smile.

Without a word, she climbs under the blanket next to her best friend and rests her head on Lena’s shoulder. Lena slips a bookmark into her book and then places it on her nightstand.

“You okay?”

It strikes her all of a sudden, how much she stands to lose if Lena decides she never wants to see her again. She bolts up to look at the girl in front of her.

“Okay, something’s wrong. Do you want to talk about it?” Lena asks, and oh, maybe now is when the panic is supposed to set it.

“No? Well okay, come here then,” Lena says again after she doesn’t respond, and then Lena is pulling her closer and holding her.

She sits on Lena’s bed quietly for a long while, with Lena holding her close and combing fingers through her hair, before she finally starts to speak.

“Hey Lee?”

“Hmm?”

“I realized something today. But I don’t really know how to tell you.”

“You know you can tell me anything. Or if it makes you feel better, you don’t have to tell me now. I won’t ask if you don’t want me to. We can just stay her, alright? Whatever makes you comfortable,” Lena answers, still combing through Kara’s hair.

She feels so _safe_ here _,_ tucked so close to Lena with Lena’s arms around her. So she takes a big breath and gathers up her courage for a moment, before she finally speaks again.

“I think I might like you.”

She can feel Lena’s breathing catch, and the hand in her hair pauses for a second, but then Lena continues combing through her hair and she relaxes.

“Well,” Lena pauses, “it’s a good thing I like you too then.”

Kara looks up when she hears that, hopeful but also confused because what if Lena heard wrong and thought she meant liking her as a friend?

But Lena gives her that quiet smile – the one that she only gives Kara and only in moments like this when everything feels perfect and quiet and safe – the one that means Lena’s really content and happy, and Kara cannot help but stare.

“Really?”

“Yes Kara,” Lena laughs, “Really.”

And then she’s pressing her lips to Lena’s, and Lena tastes like the hot chocolate she knows Lena always drinks when she reads, and it all feels so _inevitable_.

She belongs with Lena, she realizes after she breaks the kiss, after she realizes that both of them had maybe teared up while giggling somewhere along the way. And as she wraps her arms around Lena and tucks her face in the crook of Lena’s neck, she realizes this feels like coming home.

* * *

Lena tosses her her sweatshirt before classes start the next morning, and winks as she grabs Kara’s sweater.

When Lucy sees them at lunch, she rolls her eyes.

“What? I can’t wear my girlfriend’s sweater?” Lena smirks.

Kara blushes.

Winn’s jaw drops.

Lucy honest-to-god screams.

**Author's Note:**

> the american school system is a foreign, foreign world and i honestly have no idea how it works. anyway, drop me a comment to tell me what you think! or come talk to me on tumblr at katiemcqrth :)


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